NCQA first developed the Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH) recognition program at the request of, and in collaboration with, four key medical professional societies - the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), the American College of Physicians (ACP), the American Osteopathic Association (AOA) and the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP).
Remember patients? They are a driver in healthcare transformation—perhaps the most important one.
The Health IT and Quality Exchange that HealthLeaders Media held in La Jolla, California, last week for CMOs, CIOs, and CMIOs was eye-opening on a number of fronts.
The ideas, successes, and challenges that the gathered healthcare leaders shared in our small group sessions illustrated that changing a workflow or a process isn't nearly as important as changing an organization's focus from physicians and payers to patients.
Patient-centered medical homes have long been thought to reduce healthcare costs. A recent study published in the journal Health Services Research confirms that they actually do.
The study looked at PCMHs recognized by the National Committee for Quality Assurance, as well as practices that are not—referred to as the “comparison group.” It found that medical homes with the NCQA seal had lower payments from Medicare (saving money for the program), less money spent on urgent or acute care, and fewer overall visits to the emergency department among the patients they saw.
The patient-centered medical home is ideal for babies discharged from the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), say those in charge of neonatal care at the University of Kansas Hospital in Kansas City.
"It fits this population very well, and we believe we are the only ones with this model in the country," Debbie Pennington, BSN, RN, clinical program coordinator for the home, said in an interview with Medscape Medical News.
